Shyla and Russell Leaving

Well, the day finally arrived that Shyla and Russell had to officially depart for their new home in California. I've got a lot of conflicting emotions about the whole thing, but mostly I really wish they hadn't had to leave.

Having them nearby in Spanish Fork has been a good thing for me. They came to Grandma Chatfield's for dinner on occasion to break up the monotony of me being the only person who wasn't technically related to anyone else (not to mention providing another male presence at the table), they had us over top play games every once and awhile, they liked to come over to hang out and especially to see Jack, Shyla was always an eager and willing babysitter, and perhaps more than anything I really, really enjoy spending time with Russell.

I owe him in particular a very big thank you for all the patience and support he has put forth in helping me to pursue a career in web programming. Shyla told me once that one of the only reasons he actually taught the class I took from him after there weren't enough students was because I was in it and he wanted to make sure I learned things the right way. He took a pay cut to keep teaching that class. I don't know how to pay that kind of generosity back.

Everything I know about web programming has basically been taught to me by Russell. Even the smaller stuff I learned before I took his class he has helped me to refine, make better, or replace with better practices and ideas. Without Russell my Conquer Club Trivia website and my website for the creative writing instructors at BYU, Writers Camp, would not be in existence. He put in a lot of time and effort to be my advisor during the capstone class for the minor and he has put in even more time on his own when I have questions about new things I'm trying to learn or have been struggling to get something to work properly that I know I should have been able to figure out on my own.

I owe Russell a lot for what he has taught me and I'm sure I will owe him a lot for what he will likely continue to teach me in the future. I still don't know javascript very well after all.

In the end, I know that moving to California was really the only option for them, and it does make sense to keep a job that pays you well, but I'm going to miss them a lot. I think Holly will miss them a lot and I am positive that Jack is going to miss them. He really, really would light up to see Shyla come through the door for a visit, and he was starting to do the same for Russell over the past couple of months before they had to leave.

Shyla was pretty impressive last night when they finally had to say goodbye after going to dinner with us to Cracker Barrel and then spending some time hanging out. I can't say I have done nearly as well today. Holly and Julie are off to see the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple this morning and I'm watching Jack while they are gone. We took a nice nap together, but I woke up with tears because I miss Shyla and Russell so much already. That is not something I normally do.

I really, really wish they hadn't had to go.

Moving In

As many of you already know, Holly and I decided to move back to Wymount last weekend. The decision was based on a variety of reasons that I'm not going to expound upon, but it should suffice to say that having our own place is a benefit to us in both the short and long term.

The move went pretty successfully. Holly and I had everything packed by Friday afternoon and then I rented a U-Haul for Saturday morning and had a few guys from the Wymount ward help me load it and then unload it. All in all it took about 3 hours to get it done from start to finish.

We moved back into an apartment that has the same floor plan as our very first one, which meant unpacking took very little time at all. We knew where to put everything off the top of our heads and didn't have to sit and wonder where things should go. Along with that, we got rid of a ton of stuff, which means we have a lot more "growing space" for Jack as he gets older and starts accumulating some of his own stuff.

There are still a few things left at Grandma Chatfield's house, like the crib which I'm going to go and take apart to move over this evening, and some of our pictures that we will certainly want to hang up over here at the new place, but we are almost entirely settled. I know that Holly is liking having her friends around again, and I feel like being closer to campus is going to be better for us in that I have more of a chance to come home if I need to some days between classes.

I'm sure I'll post some pictures soon once we officially have everything over here.

U-Haul Reserved, Now to Pack

Just got off the phone with the Provo U-Haul and it looks like they are good to go with giving me a 14' moving truck for this coming Saturday morning. I can only have it until 2:00pm however, so I will have to work fast. I don't think I'll need more than one trip though, we have already taken a bunch of stuff over to the new place, and the only thing left in the storage unit is the treadmill, which doesn't take up that much space.

With this development I think I'm going to refrain from using my car to take boxes back and forth to the new apartment because the truck will have way more than enough room. I would say that almost half of our belongings are already at the new place, so if Holly and I go over and empty a few boxes tonight to supplement the ones we've already got at home we should be able to pack just about everything and just take it in the truck on Saturday. That will be helpful with the workload of other stuff I need to get done this week.

I have a big presentation for my CHum 489R project in about 90 minutes, and I'm hoping that it goes well. I checked this morning and they only have VGA connections to the monitors in that classroom so I spent my morning transferring my database tables to my own server space so I could get to everything online and not have to use my computer. It was a hassle, but worked, so the problem is solved I guess. I could have used the time to get some other homework done I didn't do yesterday though.